Diskless Remote Boot in Linux (DRBL) / News: Recent posts

* This release of DRBL live (2.4.2-10) includes major enhancements and bug
fixes. * ENHANCEMENTS and CHANGES
* The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is
based on the Debian Sid repository (as of 2015/Jun/19).
* Linux kernel was updated to 4.0.5-1. The default union file system has
been changed to overlay, therefore if you edit boot parameter manually,
you have to use "union=overlay". No more using "union=aufs".
* Package drbl was updated to 2.15.15-drbl1, and clonezilla was updated to
3.16.13-drbl1.
* Switched to use systemd instead of sysvinit. Following the way in
upstream.
* Package live-boot was updated to 4.0.2-1.drbl3 live-boot-initramfs-tools,
and live-config was updated to 4.0.4-1.drbl6. All the boot parameters
should remain the same. However, the boot parameter "components"
introduced in live-boot v4 has to be added if you edit the boot
parameters manually.
* Partclone was updated to 0.2.78.drbl1. A btrfs issue has been fixed, and
an issue about imaging a partition >=16 TB was fixed. Thanks to
Abdullayev Natiq (natiq2004 at yahoo com) for helping to solve it.
* Syslinux was updated to 6.03+dfsg-7. BUG FIXES
* Program ocs-onthefly failed to clone swap partition for GPT disk. Thanks
to Uwe Dippel for reporting this issue (https://sourceforge.net/p/
clonezilla/discussion/Open_discussion/thread/907b3c87).
* Failed to use pvcreate to create PV on a disk with existing partition
table.
* The volume size unit is MB, while "M" (MiB) was used for split.... read more

This release of DRBL live (2.2.0-22) includes major enhancements and bug fixes. ENHANCEMENTS and CHANGES
* The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is based on the Debian Sid repository (as of 2013/Nov/12).
* Linux kernel was updated to 3.11.6-2.
* Package drbl was updated to 2.6.9-drbl1, and clonezilla was updated to 3.8.8-drbl1.
* Improvement: adding slash in the sshfs command to avoid a remote issue. Thanks to Baird Ramsey and Richard Freeman (https://sourceforge.net/p/clonezilla/bugs/171/).
* This release was built with live-build 3, so the live-boot was updated to 3.0.1-1.drbl3, and live-config was updated to 3.0.23-1.drbl2. Due to this change, the live media mounting point after system booting now is /lib/live/mount/medium instead of the previous /live/image.
* Package partclone-utils was updated to 0.2.1-drbl1.
* Package tcplay was updated to 1.1-1.... read more

This release is a bug fixed release, with some updates.
- New upstream memtest86+ 4.00.
- An option (-w|--include-wireless-modules) was added in mknic-nbi. By default now we won't include wireless modules.
- Language files were updated. Thanks to Juan Ramon Martinez, Alex Ibanez Lopez ,Jean-Francois Nifenecker, Gianfranco Gentili, Annie Wei, Akira YOSHIYAMA and Zhiqiang Zhang.
- Debian 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3 are supported.
- CentOS 5.3 is supported
- Packages tofrodos, dos2unix, unix2dos, dmsetup, dmraid, kpartx and device-mappe were listed in the query packages for DRBL in drbl.conf.
- The patched rc-sysinit.conf for Ubuntu 9.10's upstart was added. Should be ready for Ubuntu 9.10.
- Services hal and dbus in clients now are not S20 for Debian-based system. It will be started earlier. This might fix some problem that keyboard and mouse are not working in DRBL client.
- By default "-r" option is on for clonezilla.
- Package hfsprogs is listed for Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE.

We are very happy to announce that the first stable DRBL live has been released.
DRBL live is a live system based on Debian Lenny. The same tech used to created Clonezilla live or GParted live is used to create DRBL live.
Moreover, DRBL live includes:
1. DRBL server, the diskless server,
2. Clonezilla SE, the massive deployment server,
3. Clonezilla live, the disk or partition image or clone tool
4. GParted, the GNOME partition editor for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions.
5. More programs, e.g. disk or partition rescue programs, web browser, picture viewer... ... read more

DRBL live has been in the beta status for a long time. Recently we have
some improvements so now it's about the time we can move it to stable
branch. Please help us to test it before it becomes stable.
DRBL live is a live system based on Debian Lenny. The same tech used to
created Clonezilla live or GParted live is used to create DRBL live.
Moreover, DRBL live includes:
1. DRBL server, the diskless server,
2. Clonezilla SE, the massive deployment server,
3. Clonezilla live, the disk or partition image or clone tool
4. GParted, the GNOME partition editor for creating, reorganizing, and
deleting disk partitions.
5. More programs, e.g. disk or partition rescue programs, web browser,
picture viewer...... read more

We have 2 events in Europe recently.
The 1st event is in the ISC (International Supercomputer Conference).
Date: June 23-26, 2009 (exhibition)
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Booth number: 754 (NCHC)
For more info: http://www.supercomp.de/isc09/
The developers of DRBL and Clonezilla will _NOT_ be there, but you will find some DRBL/Clonezilla stickers and "dux" dolls (http://drbl.sourceforge.net/screenshot/?in_path=/01_DRBL-Clonezilla-logo#DRBL-doll-Dux.jpg) in the NCHC booth. Therefore if you will be there, remember to go to the booth #754 and tell them you are using DRBL or Clonezilla, and you will get a "dux" doll.... read more

Some new features and bugs fixed:
- Support Ubuntu 8.10 and Mandriva 2009.0.
- Default to use Fedora 10 netinstall in drbl.conf.
- New upstream memtest86+ 2.10.
- drbl-netinstall was updated to provide an option to run generate-pxe-menu.
- Default to let client use same arch kernel with server for Ubuntu.
- Two options were added for Clonezilla: generate/check MD5SUMS and SHA1SUMS.
- Bug fixed: The function to parse /proc/cmdline for ocs_* was improved. It failed on Ubuntu 8.10. Thanks to Orgad Shaneh for reporting this bug.
- Bug fixed: /etc/event.d/rc-default of clients should be patched on Ubuntu 8.10. Thanks to cer85, AsGF2MX and Jonathan Krishnanantham.
- Bug fixed: Not only CentOS 5, but also CentOS 5.* only i686 kernel are available, no i586 one.... read more

In the super computing conference 2008 (SC08) (http://sc08.supercomputing.org), NCHC has a booth at Austin Convention Center in Texas, USA.
Event Dates: Monday, November 17, 2008 07:00 PM -Thursday, November 20, 2008 04:00 PM
Resource - Research Booth Space Research Booth Space
Booth: 1851
We will have 2 talks about DRBL and Clonezilla during SC08. You can find the schedule at http://www.nchc.org.tw/sc/2008/show_schedule.php
We will stay at the booth during the whole event, so you are welcome to our booth. You will have a chance to get some stickers, T-shirts, pens, hats of DRBL and Clonezilla!

Some new features were added in this release. As usually, some bugs were fixed, too.
Enjoy!
- One NIC server is supported now. Both alias IP address or no alias IP address for the single NIC will work.
- drblpush now can work with ethernet port with private IP address class B and netmask 16. It was only for netmask 24.
- Public IP address clients are supported now.
- New upstream syslinux 3.71.
- drbl-live-boinc was updated.
- rc.sysinit and halt for CentOS 5.2 were added.
- firstboot.SUSE11.0.drbl was added. opensuse-11.0.repo and opensuse-updates-11.0.repo were added.
- French languages was updated. Thanks to Jean-Francois Nifenecker.
- Japanese languages was updated. Thanks to Annie Wei.
- SAN (AoE) booting is supported now. For more info, check http://drbl.sourceforge.net/one4all/drbl-sanboot.php. ///NOTE/// This is still under testing.
- A new program drbl-syslinux-netinstall was added to create netinstall zip for USB flash drive.... read more

The DRBL/Clonezilla projects will be present in the .org Pavilion at LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco from August 4-7. We will also give a talk about Clonezilla in the BoF. For more info, please check http://www.linuxworldexpo.com

This is a bugs fixed version, plus some minor improvement.
- Bug fixed: Public IP address setup in init.drbl was broken due to grep without -w.
- Turn off the following netinstall in drbl.conf: redhat, debian sarge, mandriva 2007, fedora 7, ubuntu feisty and opensuse 10.2.
- About Clonezilla:
- By default we turn on batch mode for resize_part in ocs-functions.
- Bug fixed: When swap partitions number > 2, and in /dev/[hs]d10 or more, restorartion failed. Thanks to frankiehung for reporting this bug.
- Bug fixed: swappt-*.info was not converted by cnvt-ocs-dev.
- Bug fixed: cciss and multiple disks clone was broken. https://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=4861197. Thanks to Francisco Gonzalez and Rob Wynne for reporting this bug.
- Bug fixed: sda10, sda11... were not mapped for the partition /dev/cciss/c0d0p10... Thanks to Bob Dingman for this bug report.

This release is for bugs fixed with some updates:
- New upstream syslinux 3.62.
- New upstream memtest86+ 2.01.
- New PXE boot background. More info is shown in pxelinux boot menu.
- FreeBSD and OpenBSD net install are supported in drbl-netinstall.
- Some minor bugs were fixed.

It's been a long time since last testing DRBL live. Anyway, in this release:
- Created by live helper, was by live package.
- Newer kernel 2.6.22-4 from backports is used.
- Newer GParted 0.3.5 backported from Debian Lenny.
- Based on DRBL 1.8.2-50, Clonezilla 2.2.4-25.
We will try to push this version as stable one recently.

In the release, some new functions, especially on Clonzilla, were added. Some bugs were fixed, too. Thanks to those bug reporters.
- New upstream syslinux 3.61.
- New upstream memtest86+ 2.00.
- Ready for Debian Lenny and Ubuntu 8.04 alpha4.
- client-extra-service, client-ip-hostname, client-append-fstab in /opt/drbl/conf were renamed with .example appended. This will avoid they are removed when upgrading drbl. Thanks to Dave Haakenhout <Dave.Haakenhout _at_ nccw nl>. ///Note/// If the existing version you have is older than 1.8.2-36, remember to backup those files first. This function will only works for drbl 1.8.2-36 to upgrade newer.
- dcs now can accept MODE2 as netinstall, Ex: "dcs -nl netinstall netinstall-CentOS-4.6-i386". Thanks to Barny Sanchez for this idea.
- url_site in drbl.conf was changed to something like debian_url_site so that we can assign different repositories for different distributions.
- linux-ubuntu-modules for Ubuntu >= 7.10 will be installed by default in drblsrv.
- netinstall setting for centos now is 4.6/5.1.
- Bug fixed: find-url-in-yum-set was updated to cover some format of fedora repo (like "baseurl = http://..., the extra space before and after =).
- Bug fixed: If client machines are selected, in some cases they were parsed incorrectly.
- Some minor bugs were fixed.
- About Clonezilla:
- New param in drbl-functions: -q1 (--force-to-use-dd) was added. Therefore now we can force to use dd to save any filesystem. Thanks to Justin Fitzhugh.
- An experimental option -q2 for clonezilla was added (Priority: ntfsclone, partclone > partimage > dd).
- GPT (GUID Partition Table) is supported
- Package partclone was added so HFS+, reiserfs4 are supported by using partclone (check -q2 when you save an image if you want to use this). Therefore this release in Clonezilla live can be used to save and restore an Intel-based Mac OS. It's tested successfully to save and restore a Mac mini with Mac OS leopard + Ubuntu 7.04 installed.
- create-ubuntu-live and create-ubuntu-live now use live helper instead of live package.
- A helper file ocs-rm-win-swap-hib was added to clean swap and hibernation files in M$ windows system before saving. Thanks to Kristof Vansant for this idea.
- Clonezilla version number is shown in the boot menu. Thanks to evilmrb for this idea.
- Bug fixed: If clonezilla image is on Samba disk, LVM restoration will fail. Thanks to Gerald HERMANT <ghermant _at_ astrel fr> for reporting this bugs.
- Bug fixed: Custom LiveCD failed in some case. (https://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=4706371) Thanks to ser_kan and micahboggs.
- Bug fixed: LVM device file was not converted by cnvt-ocs-dev.
- Bug fixed: large number of disks and partitions will be listed and can be scrolled down. Thanks to simon (selisha) for reporting this bug.
- Bug fixed: wget should be in PKG_FROM_DBN_MINIMAL_NEED in drbl.conf. Thanks to vascoman for reporting this bug.

The purpose of DRBL live is to run a machine as DRBL server without installation. It's based on Debian Live. DRBL live includes all the DRBL functions, plus Clonezilla. Therefore it can provide PXEBoot Clonezilla, which can be used to do massively clone in a computer classroom or similar environment. Multicast clone is also supported.
Generally speaking, DRBL live is server edition, while Clonezilla live is personal edition.
The differences between DRBL live and Clonezilla live is: DRBL live provides DRBL functions (DHCP, TFTP, NFS, NIS services), so client can boot via PXE and be cloned. Since DRBL live includes all the Clonezilla programs, it can be used as an alternative of Clonezilla live.... read more

Another 2 months passed. It's time to have a latest stable DRBL. This release supports some latest GNU/Linux, and some bugs were fixed. Enjoy!

- Mandriva 2008.0, Fedora 8, OpenSuSE 10.3 and Ubuntu 7.10 are supported.
- By default, -z1 (gzip), instead of -z3 (lzop), is used for clonezilla when saving a image. Thanks to Mark Binner, tw.chi.ming _at gmail com, and ripper-cz for their experience.
- New mechanism, the language files were renamed to match the locale setting so that it's possible for others to create local version. The filename was en, tw.BIG5, tw.UTF-8, now they are en_US, zh_TW.BIG5, zh_TW.UTF-8.
- New upstream syslinux 3.53.

We have not released a stable version in a long time -- sorry to make you wait so long.
This version has some new features and some bugs fixed, and we hope it will work very well for you.

Here are the release notes. Enjoy.
- New mechanism: A mechanism to lease IP addresses to PXE, Etherboot or DRBL clients only. This applies only when using the range statement in dhcpd.conf, i.e. not when providing static IP address es to clients. This newly introduced feature uses the vendor-class-identifier mechanism and does not affect the host statement. By default this mechanism is disabled -- to enable it, uncomment the 'allow members of "DRBL-Client' line in your dhcpd.conf file.
- Simplified selection in dcs, ocs and all the dialog menus: i.e. for single choices, just select and press enter (no longer necessary to press the space key to mark the selection.)
- Improved netinstall: netinstall packages are removed from repository, since now drbl-netinstall will download those images from mirror site directly.
- Better language specification: drbl-related commands will no longer ask about language index by default; now, they will use the environment variable "LANG". If you still want to choose the language, use something like "/opt/drbl/sbin/dcs -l ask".
- Better shutdown behavior: new setting of HALT_REBOOT_OPT="" instead of HALT_REBOOT_OPT="-f -n" in drbl-ocs.conf prevents wake-on-LAN (WOL) failure when shutdown is not a normal soft-shutdown. Thanks to Dave Haakenhout for reporting this bug. If you do not care about WOL and you are impatient, you can set HALT_REBOOT_OPT as "-f -n " in drbl-ocs.conf.
- New upstream syslinux 3.51.
- Better nfs: added mechanism to use nosharecache option for nfs in init.drbl. This will fix the bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=251655.
- Ready for Fedora 8 test2.
- Ready for Ubuntu 7.10 beta.
- Bug fixed: in Fedora 7, service ConsoleKit is necessary for client.
- Some other bugs fixed. ... read more

This is a bug-fix version. These bugs were fixed:
1. A bug about Clonezilla failed to start in Debian and Ubuntu.
2. A bug about updated kernel in Fedora 7 was not listed when running drblsrv.
3. A bug about select-in-client mode failed to start in Clonezilla.

- 1.7.11-22
- Ready for Mandriva 2007.1, Ubuntu 7.04, CentOS 4.5.
- Ready for Fedora 7. From Fedora 7, drblsrv will not change the fedora repository settings (fedora.repo, fedora-updates.repo) in /etc/yum.repos.d/. If you want to change the repository, you have to edit them before running drblsrv.
- Ready for CentOS 5.0. However, due to only i686 kernel is available in CentOS repository, some clients (like Via CPU) won't be able to run as DRBL client.
- Bug fixed: in AMD64 Etch, the kernel name is no more amd64-k8, only amd64. Thanks to flossy (flossymike) for reporting this.
- Ready for PuppyLinux 2.16 and DSL 3.3 in drbl-SL.sh.
- Some bugs fixed in Clonezilla box mode.
- Some minor bugs fixed.